Royal Oak prepares to limit fireworks use

ROYAL OAK — Backyard pyrotechnic fans can load up on more powerful fireworks this year, but the sky won’t be the limit under a proposed city ordinance.

Elected officials plan to prohibit the use of consumer fireworks on any day other than the ones before, on and after a national holiday.

Violations will be a civil infraction punishable by up to a $500 fine — plus the cost of prosecution, which will give Royal Oak a bang for its buck to enforce the local law.

The City Commission will take the first of two votes needed to adopt the new provisions when it meets at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

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“We wanted something in place before the Fourth of July,” City Attorney David Gillam said.

Gillam recommends elected officials repeal the existing ordinance, limit the days consumer fireworks can be discharged, and prohibit minors under the age of 18 from possessing them.

Royal Oak could be the first community to respond locally to the state lifting its restrictions on powerful firecrackers, bottle rockets and roman candles at the beginning of the year.

“I didn’t find anything else submitted to the Michigan Municipal League,” Gillam said. “It could be that other communities are still working on it.”

Royal Oak’s police and fire officials helped draft the ordinance. Police Chief Corrigan O’Donohue stressed that consumer fireworks users must be 18 or older and that the products can be dangerous.

“I have concerns, but it’s the law of the land in Michigan,” O’Donohue said. “I just hope people are careful.”

Royal Oak officials considered making violations a misdemeanor offense, which would allow police to arrest local law breakers.

“We concluded a civil infraction is more appropriate,” Gillam said. “The police chief says it will make it easier for officers to deal with minors. There’s a different set of procedures to arrest juveniles versus confiscating what they shouldn’t have and giving them a ticket.”

The judges at 44th District Court will determine if alleged violators broke the city’s law, set the fine up to $500, and order prosecution costs be paid. Offenders also can be required to reimburse the city for the costs of storing and destroying confiscated consumer fireworks.

The new state law gives communities the authority to prohibit the use of the recently legalized class of fireworks except for the 10 national holidays and the days immediately before and after them. The national holidays are: New Year’s Day; the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., which is observed the third Monday in January; Washington’s birthday on the third Monday in February; Memorial Day on the last Monday in May; Independence Day on July 4; Labor Day, which is the first Monday in September; Columbus Day, which is the second Monday in October; Veterans Day on Nov. 11; Thanksgiving, which is the fourth Thursday in November; and Christmas on Dec. 25.

If it passes the first vote, the proposed ordinance would go before the commission for a second vote at an upcoming meeting and then be effective 10 days after that.

In the meantime, Michigan’s third large-scale fireworks store and the first in metro Detroit is doing business in Sterling Heights. Grand Rapids already has two stores.